CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

NUMBER TWO LTTE KINGPIN IN AUSTRALIA IS ACCUSED OF DIRECTING 600,000 AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS AND MEETING PRABHAKARAN

By Walter Jayawardhana

Australian prosecutors accused a soft spoken accountant Arumugam Rajeevan who was allegedly working for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terrorist group of overseeing the dispatch of 600,000 Australian Dollars for terrorist activities in Sri Lanka and visiting the terrorist leader Velupillai Prabhakaran for related purposes.

The court heard the accusations when the 41 year old Tamil man who is a resident of Sydney and believed to be the Number Two man was brought to the Melbourne magistrate court.
Rajeevan was charged with being a member of and providing support or resources to a terrorist organization and making an asset available to a prescribed entity, court papers said.

Prosecutor Mark Dean, SC, addressing the court said that Rajeevan was a member of the Australian-based Tamil Co-Ordinating Committee, who collected and distributed funds overseas to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers.

Addressing the court further Prosecutor Dean said that Rajeevan is a qualified accountant and was closely involved in the financial affairs of the group. He alleged Rajeevan was a signatory to one of the organization’s bank accounts and could be directly connected to the transfer of 600,000 Australian Dollars in cash.

Dean said the police found a photograph of Sajeevan taken with terrorist leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and pointed out Prabhakaran is a person wanted person by the Interpol for the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and a terrorist bomb that killed 90 civilians in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. The prosecutor further charged that Sajeevan also had visited Prabhakaran in October 2003.

Sajeevan was arrested a day before in Sydney and consented to be extradited to Melbourne .
Defense lawyer Sam Norton said his client was ailing with heart problems and therefore needed constant monitoring of his condition . He also indicated that he would be submitting a bail application next week.

Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge remanded Mr Rajeevan in custody to appear in court again in August.
Earlier Defense lawyer Sam Norton requested the magistrate to transfer Rajeevan to the same custodial center where his co-accused are being held.

The co-accused, Aruran Vinayagamurthi (32) of Mount Waverly Sydney and Sivaraja Yathavan (36) of Vermont South of the same city were arrested on May 1 this year . The prosecution said Vinayagamoorthy had access to Australian Dollars 500,000 despite being without a job and he transferred 240,000 out of it a Malyasian bank account and bought Australian Dollars 97,000 worth of electronic transmitters of a type used in acts of terrorism in Sri Lanka .Both of them were denied bail May 8.

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